Kanye West and Kim Kardashian seen on December 3, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by ECP/GC Images)

A former friend and associate of Kanye West has pretended to be the rapper’s representative and has scammed German designer Philipp Plein ahead of his New York Fashion Week 20th anniversary show on Monday. West is not performing at Plein’s show.

According to Page Six, the faux rep negotiated for West to perform at Plein’s show on Monday for the agreed sum of USD $1 million (AUD $1.4 million). The conman forged West’s signature and had Plein wire USD $900,000 (AUD $1.2 million) to an account in advance which, according to TMZ, he immediately emptied.

A representative for Plein has confirmed the label was scammed. “We regret to confirm that Kanye West will not be performing at our fashion show this Monday February 11th,” a statement from Plein’s people read. “We were beyond excited to work with him but unfortunately an individual pretended to be part of his management team and acted without Kanye’s knowledge, capitalising on a former friendship with him.”

“Unfortunately we too were affected by this misrepresentation,” the statement continued. “We have recently been in contact with Kanye’s official team and are releasing this statement in unison to clarify that there has not been any misconduct on any of our parts. We hope to collaborate with Kanye West in the future and we look forward to our 20th Anniversary show this Monday evening.”

An inside reportedly told Page Six Plein is now in panic mode and is desperate to find a music act for Monday. “He pays an insane amount of money for celebs to attend his shows and perform,” the source said. “He had a couple booked and then the fake Kanye booker said Kanye had to have ‘full control’ of artists playing … [Plein’s] now making aggressive offers, like mid-six figures, for an artist to do three songs. He’s desperately trying to book acts,” the insider said.

Plein’s NYFW show will happen at 7am AEST on Tuesday morning.